Today I want to talk about the single most important issue when it comes to water purity; children’s health. I think you will agree that there is nothing more important than protecting your child from potentially dangerous toxins.

One way that some children ingest toxins is simply by consuming city water because many water systems across the country have been found to contain harmful chemicals. Unfortunately it’s very hard to get accurate information, so hopefully this article will help you.

WHY ARE CHILDREN MORE SUSCEPTIBLE TO TOXINS?
While it’s important for people of all ages to avoid chemicals, it’s especially important for infants and children. The fact is that children and infants are more susceptible to harmful contaminants that could be found in tap water. Here’s why…

GREATER EXPOSURE: Infants and children consume more than twice as much water for their size as adults do, which means that their exposure to contaminants in water is considerably greater.

LOWER BODY MASS: Children and infants have a much lower body mass, which means that toxins build up in their bodies faster.

UNDEVELOPED IMMUNE SYSTEM: Children’s immune systems are not as developed as adults so they don’t have strong defenses against contaminants. Contamination outbreaks are considerably more dangerous for children than for adults.

STILL DEVELOPING: Unlike adults, children’s bodies and brains are still going through critical developmental stages. Many chemicals have been linked to developmental problems that interfere with critical growth stages.

EVEN SMALL AMOUNTS: Even small amounts of contaminants are now thought to be dangerous to children and can be a real factor in long-term illnesses.

QUOTE FROM THE EPA
I want to start with a quote from a report published by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), “the contaminants in drinking water are quite varied and can cause a range of diseases in children, including cancer, developmental effects such as learning disorders, and acute diseases such as gastrointestinal illness.”

Sounds bad, but fairly vague, so let’s get into a real-life example…

FLINT, MI.
The lead in the water in Flint, MI is probably still in everyone’s mind. There was a lot of hype about this incident. It was headline news for weeks and there was a very political town hall meeting on MSNBC.

Lead is just one of the many, many potential contaminants that can be in water of course, but it’s a great example of how dangerous toxins can be. Lead is bad. And yes, lead is dangerous to everyone, even adults, but it’s especially dangerous to children, infants and unborn babies.

Even at small doses, lead can interfere with brain development in children, reduce IQ, and cause attention disorders and learning disabilities. And this damage is irreversible!

The families in Flint, MI did nothing wrong. They were simply living their lives, and then one day they found out that they had been poisoned for the past year. A number of children were found to have lead poisoning. For those families, this is a tragedy.

IS THERE GOOD SIDE TO THIS EVENT?
But I want you to think about the good side of this event. At least they learned about it. They were able to change water sources and children born since that time were given different water to drink. The real tragedy is that there are many people and children who drink water contaminated with lead or other toxins every day, and they never learn about it. So the problem compounds and continues when it doesn’t have to.

THE PROBLEM IS BIGGER THAN MOST CAN IMAGINE
After the Flint, MI tragedy, USA Today did an investigation and published an article that reported, “While a harsh national spotlight focuses on the drinking water crisis in Flint, Mich., a USA TODAY NETWORK investigation has identified almost 2,000 additional water systems spanning all 50 states where testing has shown excessive levels of lead contamination over the past four years”.

The article went on to say, “The water systems…collectively supply water to 6 million people…Many of the highest reported lead levels were found at schools and day cares. A water sample at a Maine elementary school was 42 times higher than the EPA limit of 15 parts per billion, while a Pennsylvania preschool was 14 times higher, records show. At an elementary school in Ithaca, N.Y., one sample tested this year at a stunning 5,000 ppb of lead, the EPA’s threshold for “hazardous waste.”

These are shocking numbers. Think about the children who are having their lives permanently altered, and they don’t know it.

HOW DO I KNOW IF MY WATER IS CONTAMINATED?
You don’t. Nor does the government. You can get your water tested, but remember that a test is just a snapshot in time. In Flint, MI the water was good one day and the next day it wasn’t. The other thing to realize is that a test won’t test for every different possible toxin.

EMERGENCY SITUATIONS
What I’ve talked about until now is everyday drinking water contamination. But it’s also important to think about emergency situations, such as an earthquake, hurricane or long-term power outage. In such situations, water contamination can be much more serious because the infrastructure may fail, and tap water can be contaminated with sewage water, which can result in dangerously high bacteria levels. But an emergency situation can also cause chemical pipelines and storage tanks to rupture, thus releasing large amounts of these chemicals into the environment. This is a very dangerous situation, and again, children are at a higher risk.

The good news about an emergency situation, is that many times it’s obvious when it occurs so you have warning about taking extra precautions (as long as you’ve prepared and have a way to provide your family with safe drinking water).

WHAT’S THE SOLUTION?
The answer is simple, make sure that all of the water that your child consumes is as pure as possible. How do you do this?

Well first, it’s obvious that simply trusting in the government to provide you with safe drinking water is not the answer. This is what most people do though.

The second option is to use a filter or reverse osmosis. The fact is however, that filters and reverse osmosis are simply not able to provide effective protection against chemicals and other contaminants such as lead in the water. Filters and reverse osmosis systems produce variable and temporary results, you never know what you are getting out of them, and they are not recommended by the Red Cross or FEMA for use in an emergency situation.

Third, and the best solution by far is a well constructed water distiller. Distillation, unlike filters, produces consistent results on the broadest range of contaminants. This means that, except in extreme cases, you don’t need to get your water tested before you install a distiller. Distillation is the single best method for purifying water that there is, it’s the gold-standard for water purity and it’s recommended by top doctors and nutritionists such as the bestselling author Dr. Andrew Weil. In addition, distillation is even recommended by the Red Cross and FEMA for use on dangerously contaminated water For everyday drinking water, I recommend and use AquaNui Distillers. I can’t recommend them enough.

As a final note, for emergency situations, everyone should have a Survival Still. It is the most effective emergency water distiller on the planet.

The Survival Still is not just another product. We have a powerful vision of how we are going to help the people of the world, both here and in poorer countries. In our own little way, we are going to make the world a better place, and you can help us.